http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/personal-finance/household-finances/your-say-are-todays-20-somethings-worse-off-financially/article2441072/?from=2445245
The Globe and Mail ran an article, a few days ago, in which they asked: From the Quebec student protests to reports of youth unemployment, there are no shortage of stories suggesting young people are facing tough financial times in Canada. But are things really worse, or are young people today spoiled? We asked readers of all generations to weigh in.
So I have two sons 32 and 28, and, I work with, and try to change the world with, a lot of young people, and so I thought I would weigh in -- I even sent a picture. Apparently though (I should have known) they were not interested in real answers, just superficial info -- they said nothing about length or editing for length but they completely changed the tone of my submission and published it along with my picture (I am number 13)
My submission, as published, is at Number 13 -- I tried to keep it personal assuming that was what they wanted -- Here is what I actually submitted. The bolded parts are what they printed.
From what I can see people in their 20's have it harder than previous generations, at least back to the 40's. The golden age ran from the 40's to about 1980 and I am a boomer, and old enough to have benefited. But, my children, and their children (I have 2 grandchildren) will be worse off than my generation, AND one of my children is a lawyer. The other has a good job at a high tech company. Still, they are more severely limited than my generation.
When I was young, I went to College and then University and, although both my partner and I had student loans, we were able to pay them off (living on our own and not with parents) along with (eventually) having two kids, before we were 40. We went to university with a baby, and later two, and had daycare subsidy that covered most of the cost. With two people working at minimum wage in NS, today, daycare subsidy is very low, making it hard for two people to work without family support. (we provide the family support!) You cannot really expect to get anywhere today without a university degree, but if you have a baby when young, ever being able to afford to go slips away quickly -- how can one find $6000 a year for tuition (and that is not counting the kind of tuition that my other son paid at a professional school - $17,000 a year in tuition alone!) and more for living costs -- student loans will not cover the costs - one is expected to pay on their own.
When I was young, most work was full time and permanent if you wanted it. Much work these days is part time or casual (my daughter in law drives a school bus, and although the pay is not bad - she only works around 4-5 hours per day) The rest is shift work – when I was young, people in heath care, fire and police worked shifts; and the guys who worked at the car plants, and they got paid very well to make up for it. Today almost all work from Tim Horton's to retail, to education, is shift work, making childcare and transportation difficult, as we have not apparently kept up with the fact that people need childcare and transportation at all hours, and it is simply not provided – one has to figure it out on one's own through one's own expense/provision.
I have no idea how this generation makes it at all! I am going to get OAS at 65 (and I am already tired) - waiting an additional two years means that there is pressure on young people to save for retirement , but they cannot even pay the rent so they will just be poor, with certainty, when they get old. More than 40% of Canadians have no pension but CPP, last time I checked. With the employer cuts in pensions, to feed profit in the private sector, and pressure to match those cuts in the public sector, soon far fewer people will not have a retirement plan. I am worried about the future for my children, and grand children.
Although I am a boomer, I am not to blame for these drastic changes, elimination of the safety net and increasing costs from speculation (land and energy) and the investment casino. I have fought the inequality in society all my life - the concentration of wealth at the top eating up all of the productivity increases of the last thirty years means that my children will not be better off than their parents. In fact, they are worse off than any generation post war, because they have no hope for the future. I have no sense that they have opportunity, or hope.
The jobs are being held onto by the old who have no pensions, and cannot retire, and soon will have no OAS for an additional two years, keeping them from giving up their jobs. Then, although there is a labour shortage (so they say) there are no jobs for the young. The unemployment rate among young people is 20%+ and keep in mind that the rate wouldn't change if everyone of them was doing their best to find work. The economy theoretically woks like this -- if there is a shortage of labour the price of labour would increase, but this we see, does NOT happen. To ensure it doesn't happen, employers, instead of raising the wage, or improving working conditions to attract workers, now just import under new federal rules, which allow it, those who have no rights (temporary foreign workers) and will work cheaply under bad conditions. For example, In Guysborough County N.S. a fish plant advertised for workers at about .30 over minimum wage (there is about thirty percent unemployment rate) and there was no shortage of takers. However when they offered the job to locals they were offering a 6 day, 48 hour work week, every week of the year, with no benefits or sick pay. It was not the work itself but the fact that one had to completely devote one's life to the job – a job with no room for promotion – that put off the Locals (assuming as the employer claims that no one local would take the work) maybe locals were interested but the plant went for temporary foreign workers - 9 Phillipina's who have no rights, don''t mind working 6 days a week (or who are desperate enough for the cash to send home) They should be allow to properly immigrate and bring their families - but more to the point why is this employer allowed to set wages and working conditions so far from the norm in Canada and then import workers to do it instead of providing decent jobs for people already here? Just one more nail in the coffin of my children and grand-children's future. They are worse off than the generations before – they will also inherit a planet that is about to create hunger and refugees due to climate change and an economic system that sees North Americans better off than others, especially in the south, and the 1-10% able to meet all crises while leaving the average worker in the dust. The twenty somethings have plenty to complain about.
The Globe and Mail ran an article, a few days ago, in which they asked: From the Quebec student protests to reports of youth unemployment, there are no shortage of stories suggesting young people are facing tough financial times in Canada. But are things really worse, or are young people today spoiled? We asked readers of all generations to weigh in.
So I have two sons 32 and 28, and, I work with, and try to change the world with, a lot of young people, and so I thought I would weigh in -- I even sent a picture. Apparently though (I should have known) they were not interested in real answers, just superficial info -- they said nothing about length or editing for length but they completely changed the tone of my submission and published it along with my picture (I am number 13)
My submission, as published, is at Number 13 -- I tried to keep it personal assuming that was what they wanted -- Here is what I actually submitted. The bolded parts are what they printed.
From what I can see people in their 20's have it harder than previous generations, at least back to the 40's. The golden age ran from the 40's to about 1980 and I am a boomer, and old enough to have benefited. But, my children, and their children (I have 2 grandchildren) will be worse off than my generation, AND one of my children is a lawyer. The other has a good job at a high tech company. Still, they are more severely limited than my generation.
When I was young, I went to College and then University and, although both my partner and I had student loans, we were able to pay them off (living on our own and not with parents) along with (eventually) having two kids, before we were 40. We went to university with a baby, and later two, and had daycare subsidy that covered most of the cost. With two people working at minimum wage in NS, today, daycare subsidy is very low, making it hard for two people to work without family support. (we provide the family support!) You cannot really expect to get anywhere today without a university degree, but if you have a baby when young, ever being able to afford to go slips away quickly -- how can one find $6000 a year for tuition (and that is not counting the kind of tuition that my other son paid at a professional school - $17,000 a year in tuition alone!) and more for living costs -- student loans will not cover the costs - one is expected to pay on their own.
When I was young, most work was full time and permanent if you wanted it. Much work these days is part time or casual (my daughter in law drives a school bus, and although the pay is not bad - she only works around 4-5 hours per day) The rest is shift work – when I was young, people in heath care, fire and police worked shifts; and the guys who worked at the car plants, and they got paid very well to make up for it. Today almost all work from Tim Horton's to retail, to education, is shift work, making childcare and transportation difficult, as we have not apparently kept up with the fact that people need childcare and transportation at all hours, and it is simply not provided – one has to figure it out on one's own through one's own expense/provision.
I have no idea how this generation makes it at all! I am going to get OAS at 65 (and I am already tired) - waiting an additional two years means that there is pressure on young people to save for retirement , but they cannot even pay the rent so they will just be poor, with certainty, when they get old. More than 40% of Canadians have no pension but CPP, last time I checked. With the employer cuts in pensions, to feed profit in the private sector, and pressure to match those cuts in the public sector, soon far fewer people will not have a retirement plan. I am worried about the future for my children, and grand children.
Although I am a boomer, I am not to blame for these drastic changes, elimination of the safety net and increasing costs from speculation (land and energy) and the investment casino. I have fought the inequality in society all my life - the concentration of wealth at the top eating up all of the productivity increases of the last thirty years means that my children will not be better off than their parents. In fact, they are worse off than any generation post war, because they have no hope for the future. I have no sense that they have opportunity, or hope.
The jobs are being held onto by the old who have no pensions, and cannot retire, and soon will have no OAS for an additional two years, keeping them from giving up their jobs. Then, although there is a labour shortage (so they say) there are no jobs for the young. The unemployment rate among young people is 20%+ and keep in mind that the rate wouldn't change if everyone of them was doing their best to find work. The economy theoretically woks like this -- if there is a shortage of labour the price of labour would increase, but this we see, does NOT happen. To ensure it doesn't happen, employers, instead of raising the wage, or improving working conditions to attract workers, now just import under new federal rules, which allow it, those who have no rights (temporary foreign workers) and will work cheaply under bad conditions. For example, In Guysborough County N.S. a fish plant advertised for workers at about .30 over minimum wage (there is about thirty percent unemployment rate) and there was no shortage of takers. However when they offered the job to locals they were offering a 6 day, 48 hour work week, every week of the year, with no benefits or sick pay. It was not the work itself but the fact that one had to completely devote one's life to the job – a job with no room for promotion – that put off the Locals (assuming as the employer claims that no one local would take the work) maybe locals were interested but the plant went for temporary foreign workers - 9 Phillipina's who have no rights, don''t mind working 6 days a week (or who are desperate enough for the cash to send home) They should be allow to properly immigrate and bring their families - but more to the point why is this employer allowed to set wages and working conditions so far from the norm in Canada and then import workers to do it instead of providing decent jobs for people already here? Just one more nail in the coffin of my children and grand-children's future. They are worse off than the generations before – they will also inherit a planet that is about to create hunger and refugees due to climate change and an economic system that sees North Americans better off than others, especially in the south, and the 1-10% able to meet all crises while leaving the average worker in the dust. The twenty somethings have plenty to complain about.
